Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Ballad of Doc Satan

Last day of January and I reckon we’ll wrap it up with a Flash Forward Time Machine trip to the 70’s (via covered wagon) with a Satanic bonanza from the Dec-Jan ‘72/73 issue of Weird Western Tales #15 featuring artby the always great Bill Draut. Lots of excellent moments here, it’s just too bad ‘ol smilin' Doc Satan didn’t pay any return visits or get his own comic series, I sho’ do love him and his no nonsense ways of unflinchin' evil.

See ya’lls in February, got lotsa good’uns lined up fer yew (including more trips in the Time Machine!) Ya’ll come back now, ya hear…

TOMORROW: Matt Fox! Larry Woromay! AND Al Luster??!!

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Vintage Ads

Who wants to see the giant Moon Monster take on Doc Satan's giant flaming skeleton?

Mom, I iz scared of the dark... can I get a life sized Raquel Welch pillow to sleep with?

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Awww, My First Swipe

Yesterday you saw an incredible illustration by Mr. C; now today you get to see one by me! Okay, mine is not so incredible, and I was probably only 8 or 9 years old when I drew this sometime in the 70’s, but if you’ve already read The Ballad of Doc Satan post today you’ll see just how inspired I was by one of the demons in that tale (see page 4,bottom panel.) Kinda cute don’tcha thinks?

Yeah, the demon illustration is awesome. I love the happy sun rising over the mountains in the background. You can just tell it's gonna be a great little day in hell.

I thought the silver age story started better than it ended. All character and brimstone and then the writers didn't seem to know what to do with any of it. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" is hardly a three-act play. It was fun to read, though.

Okay, Mr. C is kinda right. This is hardly great storytelling, but at the same time I would suggest that it's very hard to find any fault with a tale which ends with 400 foot tall, flaming, laughing skeleton in a small western town at midnight. As Bill Draut's long-time friend and frequent collaborator, Alex Toth once said: "Jeeeeeeeeee-Zus!"

Bah, I think the ending is awesome... what'a ya want, some goofy angels to descend and save the day? I remember reading this as a kid and praying to the dark lords that there were more Doc Satan tales on the way... but unfortunantly there weren't.

Thanks for the comments today, and also the kudos on my grade school drawing. I was thinking it might actually be fun to even start posting more of these early illustrations from you guys too if you're interested. So, if you were inspired by a comicbook story as a tot, or even if you weren't, send your illustrations my way and I'll find a story to go with it for a future post. Or maybe you're just a damn good artist anyway and would love to display your talent here at THOIA. Drop me line, seriously.

Actually now that i think about it, Warren's EERIE magazine had a series set during the old west about an aged wizard who could summon demons with magic bracelets i don't remember the title, but i DO remember the old man's name was Jeremiah Pan. I don't have many 70's issues of EERIE but if you hunt 'em down...never know. I agree this character seems to good to waste, in the modern world of DC.comics, with all of the gore and rape he'd either fit right in, or seem quaint....or make a great villain in a Jonah Hex reboot.

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